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Do women in Hungary have higher qualifications than men?
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Unfortunately, even though a higher number of women become more educated almost every year, there are still negative stereotypes about women’s professional skills and intellectual abilities. In recent years, the proportion of women with tertiary education has exceeded the number of men with the same education levels, but sadly, this data does not have a substantial effect on the employment rate of women.
Tünde Hagymásy, the head of department at the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (CSO) and one of the people working on the recently published collection of essays, Women and Men in Hungary, helped Index to show what the differences between women and men are in Hungary today, concerning the development of the educational attainment levels of both sexes and their respective situation in the labour market.
From the data, it is clear that in Hungary, more women attain higher educational levels than men, but this is not yet apparent in their scientific and professional recognition, suggesting that there are still problems with equal opportunities, and this is backed up by numbers, which you might need to be adequately informed before forming an opinion on this topic that often creates heated debates.
Do men or women have higher educational attainment?
Tünde Hagymásy said to Index that in terms of attained education, there is hardly any difference between women and men at lower levels of education, but at higher levels, thanks to the tendencies of the last decades, the differences are in favour of women.
The level of women’s education standard is continually rising.
In 2001, the rate of Hungarian women aged 18 or over with at least a high school graduation certificate was 40.2% and the rate of women aged 25 or over with tertiary education was only 11.6%. By 2016, the rate of high school graduate women rose to 57.9% and the rate of women with tertiary education has more than doubled to 23.9%. Additionally, the standard level of education of women has increased by more than the increase in men’s standard education levels.
Do more women have academic degrees in Hungary than men?
In recent years, the number of women with tertiary education has indeed exceeded that of men. In 2005, 14.3% of women aged 25 or over had degrees, and in 2011, this rate changed to 19.7% for women and 18.2% for men. Looking at the 2016 data, the proportion of women with a degree was higher than the proportion of men with a degree in all age groups, except for those aged 60 or over. In 2016, the biggest difference was visible in the 25–39 age group, where the proportion of women with a degree was as high as 37.8%, while it was only 25.9% in the case of men.